Level 1

17 points

MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze

Overheat? The fans revved and suddenly I could use nothing but the cursor. Had to hold down the power switch to kill all and then re-power & startup. I wasn't doing anything unusual, but I had 7 apps open and was amid an auto-backup to TimeMachine.

Just a little disillusioned and concerned, wondering if anyone else there has experienced a hard freeze like this.

macbook pro 17" 2011, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 1, 2011 11:15 AM

2,292 replies

shishlik

Level 1

0 points

Mar 21, 2011 4:16 PM in response to Rensoom

I'm crying now because i don't have any other choice but keeping this crap.....
because i live in Asia and i bought this from US.
Will it be fixed? ( i opened it yesterday and i haven't experienced anything)

Mar 21, 2011 4:23 PM in response to iFrodo

Okay so I replaced the Corsair 8GB with the stock Samsung 4GB 10600S goods and the system is stable, under the conditions I mentioned previously (SCII + iTunes playing in background). Suffice to say, I think the diagnosis is this particular memory just *****. With that being said, can anyone recommend a solid 4GB stick and/or corresponding 8GB kit? Thanks and much appreciated.

Mar 21, 2011 4:29 PM in response to mb852

I was one of the people (maybe the only one) saying that there were issues and I have more or less traced it back to upgrade memory from Corsair (2x4GB). So far so good, but I will post updates here and there to verify if this remains the case.

Mar 21, 2011 4:30 PM in response to shishlik

Don't worry. I got mine from Hong Kong because I know that apple care is international. No matter where you get your mac it's covered in all apple store or official repair centers.

The update apparently fixes the problem. It isn't a large one, only a software problem so it should be fine.

It's a superb computer. Don't worry so much. 🙂

Mar 21, 2011 4:30 PM in response to Rensoom

I have a macbook pro 15' 2.0 and only crash on Fish/Shark Chrome test. Except this, nothing's happen. And I already open ableton live with lot of plug-ins, photobooth, rendered a video from 720p to mp4, saw on VLC player a 720p movie, and worked on iMovie , all at the same time, and nothing freeze. My macbook is essencial for Live Music Performances (Traktor & Ableton Live) and can not crash when i'm running it in Live Mode.
This friday is the 14 day with my Macbook. I don't really know what to do .. :\
The source of problem is related to the graphic card only ? Or it is other thing ? (i only have the freeze problem with 1000 sharks)

Mar 21, 2011 4:32 PM in response to Rensoom

****, I'm glad that Apple posted 10.6.7 and it seemed to have fixed the problem for many users. I was about to buy a new 17" and was dismayed with all the posts here.

Heck, at some point, I was not sure I'd be able to catch up with all the pages, even though I was very often just skimming over the messages. As soon as I would go to the next page unread (I think I started around 45 from the last time I read), it seems there was always a new page added!

So, does 10.6.7 seem to really fix the problem? Specifically those that are using Xcode heavily?

Mar 21, 2011 4:33 PM in response to shishlik

I agree with byranlee... Also the issue was never observed under normal usage.. only when u stressed the system, which apparently has been resolved.

Again, as far as I know, not all macbooks had that issue (although were majority).

So relax 🙂 its a great piece of hardware overall!

Mar 21, 2011 4:36 PM in response to Patranhadas

@Patranhadas

I think we eventually determined that the chrome/fish test had a warning on the page somewhere indicating that it was known to freeze machines. So this isn't really considered to be a good diagnostic indicator of the freezing problem. *You should be fine*.

Mar 21, 2011 4:36 PM in response to Patranhadas

please don't use the aquarium test to judge, its already been quoted as not a great test by many within this thread earlier... It uses WebGL and its not 100% bug free.

Even my 14-day ends this Thursday but after today's update I think I should say I'm satisfied.

Just to re-assure, try loading your system once with the applications you'd normally use at once and see how it responds. My guess is you should be fine.

Disclaimer: I'm no God 🙂

Mar 21, 2011 4:51 PM in response to Horniasty

What you are seeing might be the GPU, but it could also be the wiring from the logic board to the display.

Try booting into Single user and see if it is shown in the text, (Command+S at startup)

If it is in the text lines it is display, if it isn't then it is something with the GPU.

Mar 21, 2011 4:55 PM in response to ideazinfinite

I think smallluxgpu on the 4 or 8 core setting WITH GPU is the best test. There's no doubt that would take out a 10.6.6 thunderbolt/ATI mac. Just do the interactive render then use the arrow keys to change the view and like clockwork, it'll crash on 10.6.6. Would love to see more posts about this cvery test passing after the update. Seems like a lot of people are saying that the Aperture work or whatever they were doing is now working, but far as I can tell, this link is the definitive test.

Sorry to beat a dead horse guys - the moment I get a good feeling about it being fixed I am heading back to the apple store 🙂

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33632/smallluxgpu/

Message was edited by: keggman12

Mar 21, 2011 4:55 PM in response to DickDigggler

DickDigggler wrote:
What you are seeing might be the GPU, but it could also be the wiring from the logic board to the display.

Try booting into Single user and see if it is shown in the text, (Command+S at startup)

If it is in the text lines it is display, if it isn't then it is something with the GPU.

i did what you wrote and it put the console style boot with all those things
at the end "if you wish to boot the system: exit"
what does this mean?
bad connection between the monitor and the rest?

but i still get the freezes.. and it's not only visual

Mar 21, 2011 6:04 PM in response to ideazinfinite

ideazinfinite said:

"I agree with byranlee... Also the issue was never observed under normal usage.. only when u stressed the system, which apparently has been resolved.

Again, as far as I know, not all macbooks had that issue (although were majority).

So relax its a great piece of hardware overall!"

--------------

that's not correct, actually. it was observed under normal usage and light load. Mine crashed 3 or 4 times with nothing but Chrome, iTunes and Word open (light load). Whether the issue is resolved or not will be determined over the next couple of days. Not 3 hours after 10.6.7 has installed.

Things look good, but time will tell the story.

$0.02

Message was edited by: Adrian J.

aloker

Level 1

4 points

Mar 21, 2011 6:04 PM in response to Rensoom

I have an macbook 13" i5 and have not experienced this "yet". It looks like it happens on the 15 and 17" macs which have a ATI discrete card (I haven't read all the post).

This could be totally unrelated but I think its worth mentioning.

My secondary Lenovo laptop (had it for 2 years) has an ATI graphic card and it freezes randomly and Blue Screen with an error ati2dvag. It get more aggravated when the "red" trackball on Lenovo is used. The cause is a video driver which which went in an infinite loop and caused the computer to crash.

There was resolution posted on the windows site, but that did not help either.

Here is the link (for windows)
http://www.modernstreet.com/general/ati2dvag-problem/

I hope this helps.

Is this reproducible when the integrated Intel Card is used ?

NickWell

Level 1

10 points

Mar 21, 2011 6:06 PM in response to sammcj2000

Madhat, I just got off the phone with Apple Support as well, i performed the same SMC reset, while on the phone I had it freeze up on me again.

I can get it to freeze up every time by running handbrake and loading up a queue of 3-4 deep.

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MacBook Pro 2011 17" hard freeze